Wicked Bad (WIcked 3)(3)
Jacob.
Harrison had a flash of insight. She knew she would look back on this moment for years to come, remembering that burning gaze, and how she reacted to it.
She ran.
The necklace around her neck was warming, pulsing with life. Concern. Her mother’s gift. Moira Abbott made charmed jewelry, and she’d created this golden, snake-like choker specifically for her daughter’s first Triune. Harrison pulled it off, not wanting her vacationing parents to fly back in a rush if they sensed her panic. She raced down the hallway and around the corner, pushing through the throng toward the front exit of the club.
“Harrison, damn it, there you are. Tyghe’ll kill me for letting you out of my… Holy shit, you’re glowing.”
She grabbed Conway’s arm and felt his protective shield instantly surround her. She used her own cloaking magic on them both, hiding them from the crowded dance club. They could see each other, but no one could see them. “Con, you have to help me. Where are they? I need to get my brothers and Callie and get the hell out of here. Now.”
Her handsome cousin shook his shaggy blond head, looking more like a grunge rocker than the Magian professor he was. “No can do, Harry. Didn’t you hear? They caught the person whose been attacking Magian compellers. It was a woman, a Proxenos no less. Right here under everyone’s nose. And she almost hurt our little Callie. Luckily Tucker, Tyghe, and apparently our very own Jenner were on hand to save the day. Did you know she was a morph?”
No. She hadn’t known. And her best friend had been in danger because of her hair-brained idea, and she’d missed it. They’d all left her behind. She knew she was being petty, but it had been her sting, damn it. And it was their fault she’d fallen into this latest calamity. Matched to a triad, unsure of what their magic was but knowing it was strong, nearly as strong as her own. Especially Jacob. And the power pulsing through her from the connection that hadn’t yet broken was aggressive. Pissed off and hungry for more.
She had to get away. “It should be easy for us to get out of here then. Where are they?”
Conway blushed as they reached the cloakroom. “Upstairs, celebrating their successful matching.”
She should have known from the way her brothers were acting. From Callie’s strange behavior. She’d known about her friend’s crush on Tucker, but the way she’d been whenever Tyghe’s name was mentioned this last week was, well, telling. They were her Triune. Shit. Had Jenner known that too? Was Harrison the only one who’d been in the dark all this time?
She couldn’t think about this now. She had to get out of here before those two on the stairwell sniffed her out. Had to stop them from dragging her off to the Proxenos to be officially claimed.
“Con, I’m calling in all my chips. You have to do me a favor. A big one.”
Conway didn’t hesitate. “Let’s go. You can tell me on the way.”
A few hours later, after climbing up the trellis to her bedroom to change her clothes and grab a few necessities, she had one last thing to do.
Conway was pacing at the edge of her bed. “I can’t believe you’re really going through with this, Harry. They’ll be worried sick. Is this about those men you were telling me about? The reason you were glowing like you’d just found your magical Prince Charmings? Or something else?”
She opened her jewelry box and placed her necklace inside, leaving a long note on top of the closed lid for her family. “It’s everything, Con. You know it. I need this. Just a little bit of time to be myself before I give in to what everyone else expects me to be.”
Conway nodded, a look of empathy on his roughly attractive face. “I know it. Hell, your brother Lorie and I used to talk about it. We could never decide if we envied you or—”
“Pitied me?” Her chuckle was bitter. “The funniest part is, I’ve never understood what it is that makes me so damn special. Because I know more spells? Well that’s thanks to all my teachers who expected me to learn them. Is it because I have no specific power? I’m not a grower or a compeller, not a seer or even a protector like you. If anything, that makes me more oddball than great.”
She shrugged, at a loss. “I love my family, but they don’t understand what it’s like. And Lorie? I envy him. He lives the way he wants, without any expectations. He gets to be a dreamer with his nose eternally in some dusty book. I never had that luxury.”
Her cousin grimaced. “That’s a double-edged sword, Harrison. Out of all of you, Lorie needs the biggest kick in the pants. Waiting for him to wake up so we can find our match is wearing on my patience. He hasn’t returned any of my phone calls in a month. If it didn’t happen on a regular basis, whenever he got lost in his library research, I’d be worried. He’d miss his entire life if given the chance. And our mate could have decided to give up by now.”